Leonardo Piepoli, who left his home town in the south of Italy to live in the
North and become a cyclist, is one of those sportsmen who adapts perfectly to
the land he rides on and the team he belongs to. Ever since he moved to Spain,
he has always been among the best. On numerous ocasions he has demonstrated that
he is a great climber. He always gets lucky on the small tours and his record is
full of victories, but Piepoli has, up to now, been denied a victory in one of
the big tours. On this ocasion, luck and personal determination helped him reach
Aitana and with the help of Roberto Heras, he achieved his first big victory.

Perseverance and circumstance form part of the world of cycling. The ninth
stage was not easy. Seven mountain passes after a day of time trials makes one a
lot more tired. But, as anything is possible in the Vuelta, the race from Xativa
to Aitana offered high quality racing. There were a lot of tricks going on
throughout and the strategies influenced the final result. Some, like Alvaro
Pino, had to sacrifice everything to maintain Hamilton and Sevilla´s dream.
Vicente Belda´s riders worked on all the lands.

Breakaway. (c) Unipublic.

All day long, Cafés Baqué dreamt about the final victory of the Colombian
Félix Cárdenas and the US Postal Service maintained a strong enough front to
keep the gold jersey within the team, worn by Floyd Landis.

In the end, the rider who pushed the hardest was the winner of the last
edition of the Vuelta a España. Liberty Seguros wanted Isidro Nozal to play the
role of domestique for Roberto Heras. The Cantabrian rider did this to
perfection and it was largely thanks to him that Heras was able to be a
candidate for the victory. The rider from Béjar took Leonardo Piepoli to the
podium and got close to achieving honourable positions such as the ones
maintained by Manolo Beltrán and Landis.

Heras and Piepoli, dirt spotted and looking for the line.
Click for larger image. (c) Unipublic.

The recuperation of Valverde was prestigious. Francisco Mancebo recovered
well and Jorge Ferrio climbed the mountain to Aitana very well. This was the
first mountain test and although some like Joseba Beloki, Hamilton, Sevilla and
Evans suffered a bit more than normal, these are the trials and tribulations
that one has to endure in a sport such as cycling.

Fallout and Gains

Fourteen riders bowed out of the Vuelta today, including T-Mobile's Tomas
Konecny, the fifth T-Mobile rider to succumb from the effects of illness.
"Thomas abandoned after a few kilometres. He had nothing left in the tank. The
food poisoning has sapped all his energy and it is difficult for a rider to keep
going under those circumstances. That is why Alexander Vinokourov has astounded
me. He keeps on plugging away and wants to be at this best form for the World
Championships", said Frans van Looy, directeur sportif for the T-Mobile Team.
With another mountain stage Monday, van Looy says, "With just three riders left
to help Cadel Evans, it is not going to be easy for us out there. But they will
continue to work hard hard and let's see how it goes." Evans lost 5.19 in
today's stage.

Nearly half the AG2R-Prevoyance team took leave of the race today as well -
Stéphane Berges, Andy Flickinger, Nicolas Inaudi and Julien Laidoun. As well,
Cofidis lost the loyal Inigo Cuesta, of whom Bingen Fernandez so often writes in
his Vuelta journals, and a Postal casualty as well in Max van Heeswijk.

But it was in the final kilometers of the day that the deadly duo of Heras
and Nozal laid waste to the peloton - Nozal set a blistering pace and took Heras
toward a hoped for victory.

Several riders commented on Nozal's work, such as Illes Balears-Banesto's
Francisco Mancebo, who finished 4th: "I was surprised very much by the rhythm
that Nozal put into the race in the last six kilometers. He was able to
eliminate many rivals and he harmed me a lot, but at the end I got my rhythm
and, little by little, I recovered seconds."

Alejandro Valverde of CV Kelme, who finished sixth, echoed Mancebo: "I have
been very well physically and I have not noticed any deficit from yesterday's
time trial, but when Nozal has begun to pull I had to regulate my energies
because he nailed me, though at the end he picked me up - but at the end I was
climbing to the limit."

For his part, Nozal said, "At six kilometers [to go], Roberto asked me to
eliminate all the rivals I could so I gathered all my strength. Also, at to 4
kilometers to go, Hera told me that he would attack and then he left me."

It should be noted that Nozal, along with Juan Antonio Flecha, was chosen
today as part of the Spanish team for the Worlds Championships in Verona next
month.

Piepoli: "I have taken advantage of the work of
Nozal and Heras"

Leonardo Piepoli is very satisfied to have won a stage in "one of the big
ones" today, and his win shows the redirection of the team after yesterday -
Manager Matxin said yesterday: “After the loss of time of Joseba Beloki in the
time trial of Valencia, it is necessary to reconsider the objectives in this
Turn to Spain.”

This apparently fit in well with Piepoli's plans: "I am 32 years old and I
believed that I wouldn't achieve [a stage win], so it is a fantastic victory. At
my age it is much more important to get a stage victory in the Vuelta than to
end up 7th or 8th overall. So during the whole week I have reserved myself a
little to be able to have strength now that the mountain stages arrive.”

“I have looked for victory during the whole season but I lacked a point of
force and, mainly, a tiny piece of luck. It was good in a way but I have always
been on the threshold. This has been a year in which I have gotten many
secondary positions. Fortunately, today everything went well and I have been
able to get a great victory here in the Vuelta, that was one of the important
objectives of the season.”

"I am a climber and I can win stages and short races and I am good help to
the leader, but in the time trial I lose too much time; for that reason my
objectives should be different."

He said that today was "a hard stage, it stunk," to the point that he
was unable "at any time to observe the landscape."

“I am a rider that usually keeps cool every time that I am disputing a stage
victory. But I didn't know how Roberto Heras was going in those last meters.
Nozal has done exceptional work in the whole ascent and to be incognito on the
energy he had. I controlled myself to hold back til the last meters and that
play has come out well for me.”